Since we moved into our new house at the end of January, I’ve been attacking each room one at a time to make it over. I like our home to feel more like “us” and I’m never satisfied with the way things were set up before.*
Most rooms weren’t too much of a challenge, since we basically moved furniture from our old house into our new house. Throw a little paint on the walls, arrange the furniture, dig up some décor from my stash and we’re good to go.
I kept putting off the sunroom though, even though I had to walk through it at least a half dozen times a day to let the dog out. I couldn’t paint it because it’s basically made of plastic – most of the window surrounds are plastic and even the one wall of the room which connects it to the house is a plastically kind of wainscoting. I was actually thinking of painting it anyways using a latex based paint, but decided against it as that could go horribly wrong and it would be virtually impossible to return the room to its current state.
The room is great though – all of the windows fully recede so that the walls turn into a screened in porch. The flooring is also nice, so I didn’t really have any changes to make there. What I really wanted was to have a seating area so that we could hang out with company on nice days with the breeze flowing through. I also wanted a table area for casual dining. Lastly, I didn’t want it to be too fussy because I envision Jack using the space when he’s a little older to color with crayons or paint with a watercolor set.
I’d love to be able to go out and buy an awesome patio set, like maybe a fun sectional from Crate & Barrel or West Elm, but frankly I’m too cheap to spend a couple thousand dollars on an outdoor couch. However, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for any super clearance deals at the end of the summer.
My parents inherited a beat up set of furniture and decided to take it down to our shared Ocean City house since they had a much nicer set on their deck. However, I begged and pleaded for them to give it to me (and then sent my husband over with his truck to swipe it) since I really needed extra seating for the baptism picnic we had a few weeks ago.
It was really dirty, but I scrubbed the crap out of it and under about 8 layers of dirt came up with a half decent set of furniture. Actually, it was a pretty expensive brand and was super comfortable to sit on. It was just really worn looking and had a super dated pattern on the cushions.
After the party, we just kind of threw it in the sunroom with our existing leftover table and mismatched chairs. Not exactly a homey look.
So, I decided to do what I always do…bring out the spray paint!
And this is how I remade over our sunroom for less than $180.00
- Spray paint existing patio furniture (3 cans of spray paint and one small can of regular paint — Oil Rubbed Bronze color, same as our cabinet knobs) = $29.31
- Make super easy slipcovers** out of navy blue sheets from Walmart (2 twin flat sheets and 1 king flat sheet) = $25.97
- Bring in an awesome rug I found at Homegoods = $49.99
- Add three trays, also found at Homegoods = $18.98
- The place totally needed some fun pillows, so I bought two on sale from West Elm = $54.98
- Steal stuff from other rooms and my décor stash (green pillow, lantern, glass bowl with balls, yellow antique pitcher, handmade coasters, assorted candles and my fabulous gay sparkle squirrel) = FREE
= Total of $179.23
Here are the before shots:
And here’s the after:
Since I made the slipcovers out of bed sheets, you can just take them off to wash them and then throw them back on again. Perfect for what I’m only assuming is going to be a very messy baby/toddler playing on them.
Anyways, it’s only been a few days but I’m totally loving the changes. I have a few more things I’m going to do — like switch out the dining room chairs and maybe make a fun table runner or placemats in a few shades of blue. This is a good start though, because now when I walk through the room to let Potter out it makes me smile.
Totally worth $180.00, right?!
*Unlike the people who purchased our townhouse. I went back a month after we moved to pick up some mail and the buyer wanted to show me around (even though I’d prefer to keep my memories intact with the way it used to be). On the house tour I realized that they left everything exactly the same. Same paint colors. Same furniture placement. They even hung pictures in the exact same spaces and I had filled all the old picture hanging holes and painted them too!. The really odd thing was that they had a picture in one of the bathrooms that was almost exactly like the one I had previously put there. Creepy or flattering… I can’t quite decide!
**To make the slipcovers, all I did was: 1. wash sheets, 2. pin the fabric around the cushion, 3. sew three sides so that it looked like a super long pillow case, 3. put the sewn slipcovers on the old cushions, 4. safety pin the bottom. At some point, I’ll probably buy some velco and use that instead of the safety pins.